1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user interface menus in computers and electronic devices and, more particularly, to methods, systems, and computer program products for obtaining and displaying desired contact information in computer applications.
2. Background and Relevant Art
The term “contact,” as described herein, generally refers to any person, group, organization, business, household, or other type of identifiable entity. The term “contact information,” as defined herein, generally refers to any information that corresponds to a contact and that may be considered relevant for identifying, contacting, accessing, corresponding or communicating with the contact. In the context of the present application, contact information is used by an application to perform a desired function, such as, for example, sending an email, initiating a telephone call, accessing a website, initiating a gaming session, performing a financial transaction, and so forth. Non-limiting examples of contact information include names, aliases, telephone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, instant messaging (IM) addresses, and web addresses. Contact information can also refer to other types of information such as the status of a contact. For example, information indicating a contact is currently online, or on a telephone line may also be broadly considered as contact information.
Many applications require contact information. Examples of some applications that require contact information include email applications, network gaming applications, instant messaging applications, telephone and telephony applications, Internet applications, financial applications, word processing applications, and business management applications.
Applications that require contact information typically provide interfaces and menus for entering the desired contact information within one or more “type-in” lines. “Type-in” lines generally comprise an input field configured to receive text characters that comprise the desired contact information. For example, an email interface will typically include type-in lines for receiving the email addresses of the intended email recipients. Contact information can normally be typed directly into the appropriate type-in lines, hence the name.
Some interfaces are also configured to automatically populate a type-in line with desired contact information, which is obtained from a directory corresponding to the particular application. For example, email applications typically include interface menus for looking up the email addresses of the contacts that are stored within the email contact directory. Likewise, a telephony application typically includes interface menus for looking up and accessing the telephone numbers of the contacts stored in the telephony contact directory. This search functionality provided by some interfaces is useful for helping to identify and select contact information that has either been forgotten or that is undesirably too long for manual entry.
Although existing interfaces for obtaining contact information are useful for their intended purposes, their utility is somewhat limited because they are specifically catered for a particular application. (e.g., Email search interfaces are configured to obtain email addresses, telephony search interfaces are configured to obtain telephone numbers, etc.) Furthermore, the vast array of different interfaces, each having its own unique characteristics, has complicated the task of learning how to utilize the interfaces to search for and obtain the desired contact information. Requiring each application to create a separate directory also reflects an inefficient expenditure of time and resources.